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Apr 8 2025

NCIA supports and participates in NATO Alliance AI Hackathon

On 7 and 8 April 2025, the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) participated in the NATO Alliance Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hackathon at the PwC Brussels Campus.

More than 30 participants from across NATO, including different NATO bodies and Allies, took part in the training. The AI Hackathon aims to raise awareness and accelerate the adoption of AI initiatives within the Alliance, while addressing the most pressing political and operational challenges in line with NATO’s Revised AI Strategy and the Data Exploitation Framework Strategic Plan.

During the event, participants engaged with AI experts and collaborated with tech specialists and industry leaders to enhance maritime situational awareness. This involved integrating various data sources and leveraging AI techniques to identify patterns and anomalies, with the aim to improve threat detection and ensure security through advanced automation and generative AI mechanisms.

The Hackathon consisted of a two-day track, including keynotes, deep dives and hands-on activities focused on the proposed use cases. The event concluded with solution presentations and an award ceremony to recognize innovative contributions.

NCIA supported NATO’s Innovation, Hybrid and Cyber Division in the organization of the event by providing the NATO Software Factory, a technical environment in which the participants solved the hackathon challenge. Technical staff were also on hand to ensure the two-day event ran smoothly and all attendees benefitted from the opportunity.

This event enhances NATO’s cyber defence capabilities and cyber space situational awareness by leveraging multi-domain data for enhances situational awareness, streamlining data analysis to support decision-making and automating routine tasks to improve operational efficiency.

“This Hackathon proved how AI, combined with a secure cloud platform like the NATO Software Factory, can accelerate innovation and decision-making in just two days,” said Charalampos Sarantopoulos, NCIA Data Scientist. “It was rewarding to support challenges like this that encourage creative thinking and practical solutions to real-world problems.”